Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Samuel Womack III, Mo Alie-Cox Among Early Season Surprises

Starting point is 00:00:01 Shut down Samuel Womack and Mo Alleycox are among the two biggest surprises for the Colts here in 2024. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off of your first purchase.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Hello, everyone. I am Zach Hicks, your favorite film nerd over at HorseshoeHuddle.com. Jake Arthur, my typical co-host, is not here today because we have our weekly show here with Ben Boris at Colts Film Room. Now, again, we like to do this show talking about Anthony Richardson. Another week without Anthony Richardson. We don't really have too much to say on that. We'll see what happens going forward. If, if, look, if he doesn't start the Miami game, we will devote a whole segment or two to talk about what the heck is going on with this Colts team, but we'll see. It's usually one to two week injury. It's been two weeks. I'm not going to go

Starting point is 00:01:20 too crazy over it. Uh, like to see Richardson back out there next week for sure. And again, we don't really want to talk too much about Joe Flacco because it doesn't matter too much, you know, like quarterback matters. But Joe Flacco, 40 year old quarterback doesn't matter much for the future. So we picked a couple of film nerd topics to talk about today. I picked one, Ben picked one, and then we have more of a general one at the very end. So obviously my pick for this episode is the guy that I can't talk enough about, and that is Shut Down Samuel Womack Outside at Corner. Before I kick it to Ben, because I made Ben watch a lot of his film to really, you know, get to speed, we both were kind of grinding the

Starting point is 00:01:59 Samuel Womack film to get ready for this. And he's been good this year, man. Like, look, not only us film watchers are big on Samuel Womack right now, but the advanced stats are really, really high on him. I mean, you look at pro football focus, he's their fourth highest rated corner in coverage this season. 56% forced incompletion rate leads all corners in the NFL. 26.8 snaps per reception allowed is eighth among all corners. You go over to next gen stats with NFL pro. He's only allowing 1.7 yards of average separation, which is among the best among all corners right now. And only a 25% catch rate allowed is the best among all starting corners right now. So, I mean mean look this the advanced stats love them i think just live viewing on sundays we love them and us as film nerds watching him on film like samuel womack man like this has

Starting point is 00:02:53 gone from like hey this kid's making some plays like good stuff to like oh like this kid can play like like we're past the point of like getting more snaps we're at the point now where it's like oh this is like a legitimate starter for the Colts yeah and like kind of going back to it is like you know obviously Dallas Flowers has struggled a little bit but the reason you do make that move is because of the way that Samuel Womack was playing you don't obviously uh release a guy like Dallas Flowers if you weren't confident that you have a guy on your roster tomorrow, they could step in and play that role. And Samuel Womack's absolutely done that. Like it's,

Starting point is 00:03:30 he's making plays that I just don't normally see this defensive back unit make. And I posted one today and kind of talking, Gus Bradley alluded to this in his presser today, which was like, you know, Samuel is so good at, like, the other part of playing corner. So you have, like – obviously your athletic traits, like your speed, your size, you know, arm length, all those kind of things that we look for when we talk about the NFL draft.

Starting point is 00:03:57 But, like, he's making plays that are coming from the film study that he's doing because there was this route that I posted, and we had both talked about it, where it was this deep out to Calvinvin ridley and i'm watching it i'm like oh he's kind of sitting on that route like okay maybe you know it's the field side like will levis is a little banged up he's not making that throw i'm just gonna play it aggressively and then i'm like no he's kind of like sitting on this vertical the entire way like Like he's pretty flat footed. This must be from film study in some capacity. And so I decided to pull up all the out routes that Calvin Ridley had ran. And sure enough, it's all coming from that same formation.

Starting point is 00:04:37 And then you're putting two and two together. You're like, oh, this is that kind of football play that he's making. And that's really where that separates the good from the great in terms of corners, where, listen, you're playing corner so hard because you have to react to elite athletes in split-second time because if they get a step on you, it can be over when you're playing some of these really elite receivers. So the way that you try and counteract it is you know what's happening beforehand so you can run the route for them. That's easier said than done because it takes a lot of film study a lot have to be really smart but if you can put those two

Starting point is 00:05:09 together you can be a really good corner and that's how we see it happen i think that's what we're seeing with samuel womack as a guy who like has some of those traits but then he also has kind of what's going up above the shoulders and and that's really leading to making plays on sundays yeah yeah the three traits i told you before we recorded but the three traits that of above the shoulders. And that's really leading to making plays on Sundays. Yeah. Yeah. The three traits I told you before we recorded, but the three traits that really come to mind with him is smart,

Starting point is 00:05:30 confident, and explosive. He's the smarts to know what route is coming his way. He's confident enough to break on those routes and believe in his smarts. And then he's explosive enough to get there and get, I mean, he's had two plays this year. The,

Starting point is 00:05:43 the one, the flat throw to pick ins where he came off of his, his man and jumped it and knocked it away. And then that play that you just alluded to with, with Ridley, that if he's there at like a half of a second earlier, those are both interceptions. Honestly, the Ridley one probably should have been interception, but Levis just didn't get the ball there. Like Levis, his arm kind of died on that throw there. But yeah, we're seeing some really, really good things from him, man. And I say this as someone like, I have like defensive back and offensive line are my positions that I specialize in,

Starting point is 00:06:13 I guess for lack of a better term there. Those are the positions that I really put a microscope on because I feel really confident in how I can evaluate those. And just, I feel confident talking about those positions. You guys have seen me over the years. I mean, on the Horseshoe Huddle channel, I did that show with Jonathan Hagler, the Into the DB Film Room, where we talked about the top plays of the week from the Colts DBs.

Starting point is 00:06:35 And we talked about Rakia Sin over the years. We talked about Jalen Jones. I did a preseason video on him last year and how, like, hey, this guy can play a little bit. And it ended up working out pretty well. So I'm not saying this to toot my own horn by any means, but I'm saying this like when it comes to DB play in Indy, I really put that under a microscope. And I like to talk about exactly what I'm seeing. And I'm not going to say that Womack has been better than Stephon Gilmore or anything like that, because Gilmore was just a different level

Starting point is 00:07:02 of corner here that we haven't really seen under Chris Ballard but aside from the first half of 2022 from from Stefan Gilmore this might be the best I've seen an outside corner play in Indy uh in my time covering the team like the just again the level of confidence the level of understanding his role and waiting I mean there are plays where he's not being targeted, where I'm like, this kid just knows what he's doing. But there was a play action play against, I want to say Jacksonville or no against Pittsburgh, sorry, against Pittsburgh. They did a play action bootleg and, you know, they're really trying to stress him. They're trying to have him pick the higher or lower receiver in that. And he plays a perfect depth in between both options. he's sinking on the deep

Starting point is 00:07:45 over route until he sees his safety help over the top and then he comes down low on the underneath route and takes away that option and Justin Fields is forced to dump it down to the check down it's plays like that where it's like he's in the right position all the time he's making plays on the ball and there's a reason why advanced stats and film nerds alike are loving what he's doing like again this is not really like a joke saying like this kid's playing some good football like he's legitimately getting out there and playing some really really good football like we're talking about a corner that people would want on their team like yeah it's it's not just hey like i'm boosting this player because just to boost the player so that we don't have to complain about the secondary anymore, but like he's playing really good football and he's,

Starting point is 00:08:30 he's, he would be a corner, a starting corner. I think he's one, he was, he was claimed off waivers from Indianapolis, but there also had claims in from, he was one of the more popular guys.

Starting point is 00:08:41 They hit waivers. They, yeah. At that. Yeah. When youvers at the roster cut down. So there were teams that absolutely wanted him. And you could see he just kind of stepped in, knew the system. I mean, I think that's a huge element of this, too, coming from San Francisco, where it's very similar in what they're asking your guys to do.

Starting point is 00:09:01 And then coming here and playing really good football, I'm excited to see now that there's some receiving gauntlets that the Colts are about to face coming up. And I'm excited to see how he plays because that's going to be the real test. Not to say that, you know, any offense in this league, I mean, it's hard to play corner no matter who it is, because at this point, everybody's got a guy that you got to cover for the most part. Like there's very few teams that just have nobody out there. So, yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see how this all plays out. But you can't be anything but happy as an Indianapolis Colts fan for a guy

Starting point is 00:09:36 that wasn't really supposed to play, was supposed to be Jalen Jones and Juju Brents, for a guy that's kind of came in and stepped in and earned a starting role. And then not only earned the starting role, is playing good enough football where he's probably playing as well as anybody on that defense right now. Yeah. One last thing I will say, though, is, again,

Starting point is 00:09:54 we have a lot of comments about Jalen Jones not being – like Womack being cornerback one, Jalen Jones, you know, they kind of play very specific roles. They both complement each other really well. I do think Womack's played better this season, but Jalen Jones has had some really peak moments as well. So I'd honestly say the outside cornerback duo of Womack and Jones has been pretty good for the Colts.

Starting point is 00:10:18 And dare I say, this is the final thing I'll say before we get out of this segment and go to our next one, but, like, if Juju Brents comes back this year, I don't want to take the other of these guys off the field. Like I agree. I agree. I think we're getting to the point where it's like, Hey,

Starting point is 00:10:34 like this, we might have something here. Like, now there's a lot of football left to be played, but we might have something here just from what we're seeing. And the kind of the guys that are some of the plays that they're making yeah yeah so we'll have to see obviously like you mentioned big gauntlet coming up of of good quarterbacks good receivers and and we'll see if that sustains throughout the better today by the way so right only got worse for the Colts so uh yeah we'll see if that

Starting point is 00:11:00 sustains but as of right now man I'm feeling pretty good about Samuel Womack like I I think the Colts have something right here but enough about my favorite guy we're going to talk about Ben's pick of the week for what he wants to talk about and of course he picked the SEO golden child that is Mo Alleycox so we're going to talk about Mo Alleycox in the return of the wide tight end here in Indy coming up in just a second. But first, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of a game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet.

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Starting point is 00:13:07 Download the app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. PrizePix, run your game all righty Colts fans we are back with Ben Boris at Colts film room talking our film nerd episode here again we can't really go into Anthony Richardson because Richardson missed another game this week so Ben's topic that he really wanted to touch on this week was tight end which is kind of a crazy topic right now ben because if anyone's going to have a complaint about the colts offense this year it's about tight ends because we're not getting a ton of receiving production like the young

Starting point is 00:13:55 players that we all expected to have roles really haven't had any this year no jelani woods granson taking a step back will mallory not seeing too much of the field. But here comes veteran Mo'Ali Cox, former basketball player, if you guys didn't know that, Mo'Ali Cox, former basketball player at VCU. He's the fourth highest graded tight end in the NFL by Pro Football Focus, fourth highest graded tight end in run blocking by Pro Football Focus this year. And what we've seen in recent weeks especially with Joe Flacco getting the last two starts the Colts have really been increasing his snaps Moelle Cox is is getting more playing time he's producing in that playing time he's catching

Starting point is 00:14:36 the ball a little bit more with Flacco so Ben tell me all about Moelle Cox and the return of the wide tight end here in the Colts offense yeah I think that we're seeing a shift league wide in some of these tight ends and i think it's really evident in indianapolis because i mean we all know that the nfl is cyclical right where like you know this all kind of started in the week two scorings down two high shells all this kind of stuff and i think that we're kind of seeing similarly with how things are going with the tight ends where like we've seen, you know, some of these really what I would call the F tight ends or the move tight ends where they're going to be receiving threats and they're going to take

Starting point is 00:15:17 advantage of these linebackers and safeties and all these kinds of things and generate explosive plays. And now we're getting kind of to the pendulum swinging where defenses are like, hey, you can – some of these guys are just another receiver on the field. You're playing 10 personnel when you're really in 11 personnel. And when you have two tight ends on the field and you're in 12 personnel, that's really 11 personnel because that guy is just a big receiver.

Starting point is 00:15:39 And now, because there's no threat, legitimate threat, we're seeing – I mean, you can go look at the week one game. The first game to kick off the year, which was the Chiefs and the Ravens, and we kind of saw it with Mark Andrews where, like, Mark Andrews wasn't really blocking that well, and they basically had to check to go to nickel the 12 personnel. So, like, we're seeing defenses just adjust to this kind of stuff because they know who – they would rather get lighter bodies on the field

Starting point is 00:16:06 to cover the guy that, hey, we know he's not going to create an extra gap. And if he creates the extra, well, by math he will, but, like, not by anything that he can do in the run game. We expect our linebackers to dominate that matchup. That's a schematic advantage. I think that's kind of what we're seeing with Kylan Granson where, you know, I would describe Kylan as a guy who's a finesse blocker, where, you know, he can get in front of a guy, he can, you know, maybe block a guy in space. But if we're going

Starting point is 00:16:32 to run downhill, we want the guys with Mo Alleycox and Drew Ogletree. And that's a lot of the reason that they are playing really good football that you're never seeing on the stat sheet. I think everyone wants the guy like a Dalton Kincaid or a Sam Laporter or Travis Kelsey. And you could really make a serious argument because I've seen it been made and I kind of, there's merit to it that Travis Kelsey, who's one of the best receiving tight ends of all time, creates similar production to another, to a pretty average wide receiver. And like, if you don't have that guy that can also provide a plus element in the run game, then you're kind of losing out on that extra guy. So I think one of the things that's made Drew Ogletree

Starting point is 00:17:14 and Mo'Ally Cox so valuable is when they're on the field, like, hey, you know, Mo'Ally Cox isn't going to outrun anyone when it comes to, you know, maybe his speed. I think that's pretty – I've heard the comments there. That's not his game, but he can make some of these competitive catches over the middle. He's got really strong hands. I think he's a plus in the red zone that we kind of saw in the Jacksonville game,

Starting point is 00:17:39 and I think we're going to continue to see that throughout the year. He's kind of been a guy that people want off this team, and I'm not really sure why. Even dating back to 2023, he was on the field for every high-leverage situation and oftentimes got the ball in a lot of those, whether it's the pop pass in Houston, it's the red zone touchdown, or it's the fourth down fake power with Zaire Franklin. So this is a guy that that

Starting point is 00:18:06 has been doing it for a while is never going to really dominate the stat sheet per se but he's creating advantages for this offense that we're going to see pay dividends yeah and and i will say jake and i had a whole episode this past offseason where we did talk about how it was time to move on from marley cox more so because, and again, this was before Jelani Woods got injured again, it was more so about the youth movement. Bring the four young kids out here, see what you can do with them, because it's about the youth movement. Contract year for Marley Cox as well.

Starting point is 00:18:36 Right. So that was more, but as the offseason went on, and especially as Jelani Woods was underwhelming at times, and then obviously the injury happened, it kind of got to the point to me where it's like there's nobody else on this roster that can block besides Drew Drew Ogletree you know like Will Mallory he's not going to go out there and block defensive ends we're seeing more 12 personnel they would rather have those guys on the field right right like Kylan Granson's not going to block defensive ends I mean Jelani was showing

Starting point is 00:19:03 some good things I'm not sure he has a singular I'm not sure that Kylan Granson's not going to block defensive ends. I mean, Jelani was showing some good things. I'm not sure he has a singular – I'm not sure that Kylan Granson has a singular rep inside the 10. So, like, I'm not – someone can quote me on that. But, like, yeah, I think it's less about maybe the player, Molly Cox, and the archetype of player where, like, this is why you will hear me shout for Tyler Warren to Indianapolis, you know, based off the fact of like, hey, let's get an inline wide tight end. Those are back in this league. If you have a guy where he can go and block an edge rusher if he needs to, he can block a linebacker, he can – or that edge player in the run game.

Starting point is 00:19:38 He can, you know, also catch the ball and be a physical point. Like, if you can have the balance of that too. That's what makes tight ends dangerous. Not having these, you know, glorified big receivers, which obviously are merit and they're going to put up stats like a receiver and they'll put up stats on your fantasy team. But like when it comes to what's winning in the NFL right now, there's a reason that Sam Laporta had just a ginormous rookie year and

Starting point is 00:20:02 he's probably matching that again. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's a big part of this Colts offense, too, especially when you don't have the creativity in the run game with Richardson missing and Taylor missing. The Colts had to lean on kind of more of a generic run game with Joe Flacco. And with that more generic run game came more 12 personnel, more 11 personnel but with a heavier tight end out there so you could have the six blockers on the offensive line and credit to Marley Cox for

Starting point is 00:20:28 being a very good blocker this season and for being a very good blocker his entire career. Again, like as the off season kind of went on and I moved past the phase of the youth movement only at tight end, you know, I wrote an article before the season started where it's like, look, Marley Cox has made himself invaluable because he does that one thing that coaches value and that is blocking and like you mentioned the high leverage and being dependable but look it's the blocking man like it is and it always will be for the right yeah like don't get it twisted like he's he might be getting up there in age you know people want to talk about the contract which isn't even really that large when you think about how like i just think we're seeing if a kind of an overall league wide switch where

Starting point is 00:21:08 these big, if you're a guy that can block and you can go out there and be even a remotely average pass catcher, you're going to be a really good player in the league because teams don't see, Hey, Colin Granson's on the line of scrimmage right now. They're not running this ball.

Starting point is 00:21:24 Like, you know what I mean? Like the teams believe that and Kyle, even a guy like Colin Granson's on the line of scrimmage right now. They're not running this ball. Like, you know what I mean? Like, the teams believe that. And even a guy like Colin Granson, there's more extremes out there in the league where there's guys – like, Mike Gesicki is a wide receiver. Like, and I say that as someone who really thinks Mike Gesicki's a good player. It's like, he's not a guy – that's 10 personnel. Like, so I just think that's what we're seeing in this league

Starting point is 00:21:46 at this point yeah and guys because we talked about molly cox and blocking for tight ends we do have to talk about this colts run game the colts run game one of the best run games in football to start the season last couple of weeks with especially with joe flacco being at quarterback it's been a it's been a struggle at the running game. So we'll talk about exactly where the issues have been in the Colts run game, what kind of is to point to and blame, and can the Colts right the ship when it comes to their rushing offense the rest of the season. But first, guys, you all know me. I love me a good concert. I go to concerts all the time, especially my punk shows, my metal shows that come near me in the D.C., Baltimore area. So there's a lot of really cool venues up there.

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Starting point is 00:23:47 We're discussing all film nerdy things here. Now, we talked about two topics that we really wanted to hit on, which is you talking about tight ends and Marley Cox, me talking about my boy Samuel Womack. Now we got to talk about a pressing issue with the Colts, and that is the evaporation of this run game the last couple weeks. Now, a lot of factors go into this. I think the biggest factors are they lost not only Anthony Richardson, but they also

Starting point is 00:24:11 lost Jonathan Taylor at the exact same time. And those were the two most important factors, obviously, in the running game. And the impact were in Ryan Kelly and Will Fries as well. Yeah, Ryan Kelly and Will Fries as well. Like, they've lost a lot of important pieces to their running game. But what we've seen from this rushing attack last two weeks has simply not been good enough. Like regardless of who is injured in front of you, Tennessee Titans have a good defensive front and they really attack downhill at a really high level. But again, having under four yards of carry from your main back and really your explosive running game just

Starting point is 00:24:44 going away. I mean, their only explosive runs the last couple of weeks have been what an early run to Trey sermon in this past game, the Tyler Goodson, 33 yard run, which is great. And then the Joe Flacco scramble for 21 yards that have been, that has been your most explosive running element these last two weeks. And that's just not sustainable. Obviously that's not something you can, you can really rely on. So Ben, when you're watching the film of this Colts rushing attack these last two weeks. And that's just not sustainable. Obviously, that's not something you can, you can really rely on. So Ben, when you're watching the film of this Colts rushing attack these last couple weeks, is it really so much like, look, Jonathan Taylor's that much better than Trey Sermon, the offensive line underperforming, you know, Anthony Richardson's

Starting point is 00:25:18 impact? Like, what are you really looking at here? When you're looking at the Colts struggles on the ground game the last couple weeks? Yeah, and before before we record it i kind of tell you like it's it's going to be way more than just one thing i don't think we can peg you know this goes all on confounding variable x or z uh obviously when you run a lot of inside zone as a team and you lose your center your right guard you're running back and you're plus one quarterback it's hard to run the football that's also an excuse um i think i don't want to be too critical because i think shane steichen and the staff when they've had anthony richardson have found a way to generate explosives with really good creative run design i don't think it's necessarily been the best these past two weeks. A lot of base runs, a lot of, you know, the same eye candy motion where they run Josh Downs in the orbit return.

Starting point is 00:26:12 And, you know, nobody they haven't done anything off it outside of maybe an RPO where like linebackers really aren't going to buy that. I mean, they get the man's own tell, but it doesn't really, like they're going to need some more creativity in the run game, whether it's under center with Joe Flacco. They're kind of doing it from the pistol, which they do for Anthony Richardson. And the reason you would want Anthony Richardson in the pistol is because, you know, you still get the element of the plus one quarterback when you're under center. Now we're just worrying about the running back.

Starting point is 00:26:42 We know the quarterback's not going to run the ball. With Joe Flacco, some under center runs aren't going to help because nobody believes he's running the ball so like that's kind of you know maybe my critique in the moment I also know that they've probably been juggling some injury things and that can affect the game plan in a lot of different ways um still all excuses um I think Tyler goodson ran the ball really well i think in that game uh he gave them some juice where i think you know tyler goodson and trey sermon are the yin and the yang in terms of opposite play styles like but um you know tyler goodson cannot pass protect trey sermon's really really good at pass protecting. Tyler Goodson runs the ball fast. He's explosive and he has speed and he has juice. Trey Sermon doesn't necessarily do that,

Starting point is 00:27:31 but he can turn out some of the, he's big enough to turn out some of those dirty yards where we can run the ball downhill and I can push the pile forward. And it just kind of felt like, it just kind of felt like they didn't really have a plan for either of them. So that's going to have to change. I think they know that's going to have to change. So I think there'll be some more creativity heading forward to get some of those lanes open. I think the other confounding variable here is that they've played some pretty good defensive lines like i mean putting in meatloaf uh who i will continue to call meatloaf to vandre sweat and justin simmons in the interior is not easy it is not easy um to control the run versus

Starting point is 00:28:20 versus the tennessee titans uh it's you know i i wouldn't say that Jacksonville necessarily has those caliber of guys, but they definitely don't have nobodies out there either. So yeah, I think it's going to be a work in progress, but hopefully we shouldn't have to worry about this because Anthony Richardson will change that dynamic. And then as soon as you could hopefully get Jonathan Taylor back, you should feel the same. And I think you feel hopeful about both those guys, just from the pure element of if Jonathan Taylor wasn't going to play or had no shot at playing, he probably would have been put on IR. Someone would have to check with me if they've used all their IR spots,

Starting point is 00:28:59 but I don't think they have, despite how injured they've been. So he would probably have gone on IR. We'll be interesting to see will be interesting i think they do definitely need to find ways to get the ball in tyler goodson's hands i mean he just seems to make plays so yeah that's kind of my thought my overall thoughts it's certainly concerning it certainly held them behind the sticks multiple times last sunday uh it's definitely got to change it. I think you're going to play a different front that you have played, like style of front in terms of how they align guys, and then also body types too. So we should be able to see some significant improvement in that area, but

Starting point is 00:29:36 worse comes to worse and you have to see a combination of Trey Sermon and Joe Flacco again, you would hope for something way better than what we see. Yeah. And one thing I want to ask you one more thing before we get out of here, when it comes to this running game, because I'll get my quick thoughts as well. I'm with you. I think Stain Sikon is,

Starting point is 00:29:53 is very simplistic when it comes to the running game. Like they, they don't do a lot of crazy things in the run game. Like they live in inside zone and split zone. They do a lot of that stuff. They do with Andy Richardson. Right. Yeah. Barca Minshew was in the game. It was very rare to see, you know, inside zone and split zone they do a lot of that stuff they do with andy richardson right yeah

Starting point is 00:30:05 was in the game it was very rare to see you know kind of nuanced design they had some things i want to give them some sort of credit but they stick to their base runs because the run is just a tool to keep them ahead of the sticks right right and yeah with rich and they do mix in a lot of interesting qb stuff but even even for most part, like they still like the inside zone in the split zone, this, they just build off of it a little bit more with Richardson. And that's what keeps it interesting and keeps it going. But it is a fairly simplistic overall running scheme, but it works because of the players in the scheme. It's, it's kind of players over scheme. Like what, what's the, the Jim's and Joe's over X's and O's or whatever is what is what people

Starting point is 00:30:45 say. So yeah, it's kind of like that when, when it came to how the Colts use their running game. And one thing I want to ask you before we get out of here though, is let's say they don't get Jonathan Taylor back this week. Cause again, the ankle injury we could see, you know, hopefully he's feeling better and he's able to go, but they do get back Richardson, even though it might be a little bit more cautious with Richardson. Do you think just having Richardson back, just the impact of him being on the football field can maybe clear some things? I mean, because like Tyler Goodson, for instance,

Starting point is 00:31:18 is not really like this passive runner where he needs to like be patient and wait for a hole. He is the guy where the second that ball touches his hands he's going 100 miles per hour straight and if there's a lane there he'll hit it like the 30 yard run like he'll hit it so just having Richardson back do you think that could like lead to bigger holes for these guys to create a little bit more so so the short answer is depending on how limited they are the The longer answer becomes yes, because I think they'll lean back into RPOs, which they have not done this year, which has been a real development where like they were such a heavy RPO

Starting point is 00:31:52 offense. And obviously the RPO makes it. So when you do run the ball, you're going to run it into a light box because the read takes you that way. Joe Flacco has tried to do it. He's been pretty bad at it. If we're being honest,

Starting point is 00:32:04 some of these runs where Trey Sturman is simply bottled up at the point of attack is because Joe Flacco made the wrong read on the play. That happened a couple times in Tennessee where they had a perimeter screen that had the numbers with Josh Downs. They usually tag a bubble onto an inside zone, and that's how they do it. They had the numbers to run that play. It should have been thrown. I think Joe would probably tell you that as well, unless it's just there for eye candy and not a part of the

Starting point is 00:32:29 play but I doubt it um Joe Anthony Richardson gives you the capacity to do that so uh because that's where he kind of really excels and a lot of his he's really good he's a really good RPL quarterback so uh yes you would like to see him get at least a couple you always want that in the back of your mind I think I don't think you need to run him as much as that you as you have been if you're in the interest of being cautious but like the occasional run kind of like we see with um kind of Jalen Hurts in 2024 where you'll see with even a little more towards Lamar but Lamar will run it a good bit just to get, keep the defense on their toes.

Starting point is 00:33:07 So they can't just run dive right at the running back. And you get the element of the math. I think you need to run him at least a couple times a game. I don't think it needs to be as excessive as it has, but I think that's also part of the reason you hold them out the extra week is so that you can do the things that, you know, this team excels at and

Starting point is 00:33:25 getting him healthy that way yeah yeah for sure so overall when it comes to colts run game yeah some concern right now but they are missing arguably their foremost important i mean losing a guard a center uh your quarterback and your running back that's going to be tough so yeah yeah no matter how well bordellini has played no matter how well flacco has played how well um tucker has played like trey sermon and tyler goodson haven't been terrible this year by any means so like no matter how well those guys are playing those guys being out there rather than richardson taylor kelly and will fries it's huge especially with how fries was playing this year and how taylor was playing like it's huge, especially with how Fries was playing this year and how Taylor was playing. Like, it's a really big difference.

Starting point is 00:34:07 So not terribly concerned with the Colts run game. Maybe they won't finish top five like I expected before the season in terms of rushing impact. But I think the run game will be fine long term as long as they get Taylor and Richardson back. But that's all we have for today, guys. I want to thank you guys for making Locked on Colts your first listen today. Now for your second listen, go find the new Locked on NFL with two shows every day. First, the Madman Tyler Rowland kicks off your morning with a double shot of NFL espresso and then stop by the barbershop with Tony Wiggins for some real NFL talk.

Starting point is 00:34:38 Find Locked on NFL on YouTube, wherever you list your podcast. If you guys don't already, make sure you're following at Locked onColts, at JakeArthurNFL, at ZachHicks2, and at ColtsFilmRoom, all on Twitter. Also, subscribe to us on YouTube, wherever you list your podcast. We love you guys, rating the views, and we'll catch you guys back here tomorrow afternoon.

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